The Loop I Drive Every Saturday and Almost Never Talk About

Same four stops, same order, most Saturdays, and I could probably drive it with my eyes closed at this point, not that I’ve tested that theory.

First stop’s the Goodwill on Bardstown Road, and I get there early enough that the overnight sorters have already put new stuff out but before anyone else has picked through it, which took me embarrassingly long to figure out as a strategy. Then a used bookstore a couple miles over, small place, cramped shelves, the owner knows my face by now even if we’ve never actually exchanged names. Then the one used game shop worth checking, which is hit or miss most weeks, empty bins more often than not, but worth the five minutes it costs me. Last stop’s a diner, not because it’s part of the hunt, just because by that point I’ve earned a coffee and a plate of something and I like having somewhere to sit and actually look at what I found before I get home and my wife asks what I spent.

I’ve tried explaining this loop to people who don’t do it and it never quite lands, because on paper it sounds like nothing, four stops, a couple hours, most weeks you come home with one thing or nothing at all. But there’s a rhythm to it that I’ve come to genuinely need, the kind of thing where if a Saturday goes by and I don’t do the loop I notice the absence of it more than I’d expect to. Louisville’s a decent town for this specifically, there’s more secondhand turnover here than you’d think for a city this size, probably something to do with how many people move through for work and don’t want to pay to ship a bookshelf’s worth of stuff across the country when they leave.

Most of what I find on the loop isn’t games or books at all, obviously, most of a Goodwill bin is clothes and mugs and picture frames nobody wanted, and I’ve gotten fast at scanning past all of it without really seeing it, the way you tune out static. But every few weeks the loop pays off in a way that makes the whole ritual worth it, a box I recognize from a review thread, a spine I’ve been half-looking for without actively hunting it, and the payoff hits harder specifically because I didn’t go in expecting it. That’s the actual reason I keep the loop instead of just checking listings online, which would honestly be more efficient and find me specific titles faster. Efficient was never really the point. The not knowing what’s going to be in the bin is most of why I still do this at all.